Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 25-06 or .25 WSSM?

Good people,

I'm in the market for a .25 calibre and it's basically come down to these two. Here in Australia, the .25 WSSM has yet to arrive so any advice, suggestions and opinions from your collective wealth of experience would be much appreciated.

Many thanks.

25-06, I remain unconvinced that the WSSM's will last, while the 25-06 will probably be around forever and 3006 brass will certainly be.

I'll second that, the 25-06 gets the vote here............

Me Three!! 25-06

Since they have the same ballistics, stick with the proven round. In fact, because of this duplication, I don't expect the .25 WSSM to live either.

So far the 25-06 has it.

My suspicions may be true after all!

2506

Hard to beat a 25-06 at it's own game.................

Damn straight, I like what I see. I thought I was of an endangered opinion on this stuff but it looks like others too would favor the proven classic to a new shorter case that does the same thing performance wise. Here's my thing, the original cases/calibers that have been targeted as performance benchmarks for short cases tagged "magnums" have been around long enough to have well established reload recipes. Know what I mean? Not only have we been able to establish a global custom reload recipe box for the 25-06 but the factory ammo companies have had many years with these standard cases to develop various offerings in 25-06 in bullet weight, bullet construction & perfected powder loads accordingly. So many reasons to stick with the standard, ammo price, ammo availability.... There is only one situation I can think of where I would consider purchasing a new rifle chambered in one of these new short or super short mags. I like Elk hunting, I also like Winchester M70 Featherweights. Well for many years the biggest thunder stick that Winchester would fit into that featherweight stock was the 30-06. Now that aint bad for elk but I'm a little more comfortable with stepping up to a 300 win mag, 338 win mag or maybe something like a 300 wby. (I like the 30's & up)
So, now Winchester offers a featherweight in 300 WSM which does it's best to mimic the performance of the 300 win mag. So suddenly we can get a 30 caliber magnum in the featherweight, that's kind of nice. The only thing nicer IMO would be a featherweight offered in the old standard 300 win mag.
I'm not saying I'm going to buy one, I've got the elk tool already. I'm just pointing out one situation I can think of where the WSM has been strategically placed in a spot that forces a certain level of interest with me.

BH,
I chimed in on Dave's WSM/WSSM thread to join him in wondering what all the fuss was about these squatty loads, but I would have to say that the .257 situation is one where there might actually be some benefit, since 26-06's usually use 24" barrels. Don't know what they're shipping the WSSMs with, but you could probably get away with a shorter barrel as well as the action in this case, which may provide some carrying benefit. My Ruger 25-06 has a 24" medium weight tube which is very unwieldy. Having said that, there's no way I would trade it for two WSSM's, and what everybody else said about not really knowing if the WSSM will survive applies, so forget what I just said!

25-06 for me

25-06. BMT

I'll take the WSSM any day over the 25O6.

i'd recommend that you look at both and use whatever blows your skirt up.....

do look at both though, as the wssm in the model 70 classic featherweight is an appealing package..... as was the same rifle in 25-06(no longer available)

also, if a guy don't handload, the wssm looks better due to the loads available from a factory box..... john w

Add me to the .25-06 list. Particularly given your antipodean location, the probable short commercial life of the .25 WSSM would be a big negative. The .25-06 is going to be around forever. .25-06s are slick feeders, too, unlike the little stub rounds.

A few years back my go to deer rifle was a Remington 700 stainless in 25-06 and everytime out with the rifle I found that I was wishing I could have the same ballistics but in a shorter action more compact rifle.

I was raised on the .250 Savage and moved up to the more powerful 25-06. You sort of get used to a short action and then when you change rifle size you give up some of the compactness for the extra power.

Here in the southeast a 25 wssm would come in handy. The compact rifle would be nice in the swamps and for hunting portable climbing stands. Then you would still have enough gun for the long powerline shots.

SU35,

Your reasons please! The more opinions in the face of the overwhelming 25-06 majority, the better!

I'd pick the 257Roy over both of those...

I prefer (and have) the .25-06. I also have the .250 Savage in a bolt action and love it too. The midget magnums just don't do anything for me.

say you take two ruger, both walnut blued standerd models with 24" barrels, one is 2506, the other a 25wizzum.

what is the real world difrence in lenght. .5" 1" 1.5" 2" are we talkin more than 2"S hmmmmmmm.

i dont see the action giving much advantage in compactness.

actualy hang on, im gona go compare my 270wsm 24" barrel and 2506 24" barrel.

bare with me im going to just eyeball and see if i can guestimate the difrince,

be right back.alright im back

found a tape measure on the way, at first glance they looked to be identical. but the the tape sayed the wsm is shorter. it taped at 44 1/4" while the 2506 was 44 5/8"

tell me that 3/8" would actualy benifit anyone in a real world hunting situation off the computer screen.

i doubt it.

Evan